A Colorful Food Lover’s Feast for the Eyes, Starring Flavors of the Bronx

Video Baron Ambrosia, the fictional food enthusiast created by the filmmaker Justin Fornal, explores hidden culinary treasures in the Bronx ahead of the premier of his new movie.

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

By WINNIE HU

October 31, 2013

The man in the purple suit knocked insistently until the metal door finally swung open on a recent afternoon. He bounded down the steps to a basement pool hall in the Bronx, where a worn lunch counter served some of the tastiest pork-and-okra stews and braised goat outside of the Dominican Republic.

“It’s the real deal,” said the man, Justin Fornal, who is known as the wacky culinary explorer Baron Ambrosia, as he dug into a plate of pan-fried sticky rice with his fingers. “It’s Baron-approved.”

If New York City’s fine dining establishments live by Michelin stars and Zagat ratings, the myriad homegrown restaurants and shops of the Bronx have their own roving critic. Those that please the Baron’s palate are recommended to his fans and featured in his ever-expanding portfolio of media projects, which includes podcasts and two culinary-themed shows on the Cooking Channel and BronxNet, a local cable television network.

Now Mr. Fornal has cast some of his favorite Bronx places in a movie, “Baron Ambrosia Is Dead,” which will be shown free on Saturday at the Andrew Freedman Home, a landmark site on the Grand Concourse. The movie, which was produced by BronxNet and Sony Creative Software, sends the Baron on a madcap escapade through congestion-free streets and charming ethnic enclaves with cameos by his real-life friends, including the hip-hop musician known as Grandmaster Melle Mel.

Notably, there is not one shot of a burning building — and, unlike that other movie about the Bronx, no Fort Apache-like police station under siege, either.

Mr. Fornal is not a Bronx native, but his homage to his adopted borough has won him a following among its 1.4 million residents. The borough president, Ruben Diaz Jr., proclaimed him the Bronx’s official culinary ambassador, and a giant photo of the Baron was splashed across a billboard near the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (formerly the Triborough) last year as part of an advertising campaign for his show on the Cooking Channel.

“We’ve adopted him, too,” said Marlene Cintron, who oversees economic development for the borough. “He’s a wonderful ambassador not just for Bronx food, but for the Bronx experience.”

Still, Ms. Cintron added, “The first time I saw him, I had to blink a couple times.”

Mr. Fornal, 35, was a pop of color on a recent gray, overcast afternoon as he strode down the street in a vintage purple suit, an oversize bow tie with the Baron’s initials, matching shoes and an umbrella. Purple was his color, he said, because “it’s the color of celestial funkiness.” In the movie, he drives a purple convertible, which he built with his father.

Mr. Fornal at Nano Billiard Cafe, which is featured in his movie, “Baron Ambrosia Is Dead.”

Todd Heisler / The New York Times

“It’s not an act, it’s not a character, it’s what I like to do every day,” he said. “So many people settle for what’s safe and what doesn’t raise eyebrows. They’re living at a fraction of what they could be. Every time I step out of the house, I want to live 110 percent.”

Mr. Fornal, who grew up in Killingworth, Conn., followed his then-girlfriend — now wife — to her family’s home in the Bronx in 1999 after studying filmmaking and history at the University of Pittsburgh. Soon he was exploring every corner of the Bronx, “blown away,” he said, by “the diversity and all the ethnic enclaves that were still intact instead of being homogenized and watered down.”

In 2006, Mr. Fornal invented the Baron Ambrosia persona and started capturing his adventures in a series of podcasts called “Underbelly.” Two years later, he developed and starred in “Bronx Flavor,” a show on BronxNet, in which the Baron fought villains and ate his way across the borough. “He makes it kind of comical and then you actually learn about the Bronx,” Melle Mel said.

Michael Max Knobbe, executive director of BronxNet, described Mr. Fornal as a gifted storyteller who is helping to define the present-day Bronx rather than dwelling on stereotypes of the past. “Many leaders and organizations have worked to make the Bronx a symbol of urban renewal,” he said. “Baron illuminates that, and is a champion of small businesses and people striving and thriving.”

Food often has a central role. Mr. Fornal, a self-taught cook, said he did not see himself as a chef or a food critic but as a culinary anthropologist. And, he said, “obviously, I have a very ravenous appetite.”

Max Falkowitz, the New York editor at Serious Eats, a food blog and website, said that while he was not familiar with all of Mr. Fornal’s culinary picks, some, like the Bangladeshi restaurant Neerob in Parkchester, were highly regarded. He praised Mr. Fornal for drawing attention to a borough that is not known for its food. “The Bronx needs someone who can get really excited about the quality of the food there and who can share it with others in an accessible and engaging way,” Mr. Falkowitz said.

“Baron Ambrosia Is Dead,” which was shot over the past few years, follows the Baron as he breaks out of jail (where he landed in the last episode of “Bronx Flavor”) and returns to old haunts like the kitchen at Neerob, and Frank Bee, a family-owned costume store in Throgs Neck.

Mr. Fornal also took his film crew to Nano Billiard Cafe. Regulars playing billiards and dominoes were pressed into service for a fight scene. The cook behind the lunch counter, Anita Romero, 53, is shown mixing huge pots with a long wooden spoon.

Under Ms. Romero’s watchful gaze recently, Mr. Fornal cleaned his plate, then he headed upstairs to hit the Bronx streets. “A lot of people ask me if I was born in the Bronx,” he said. “My reply is, ‘No, I chose the Bronx.’ I want people to come here and appreciate our community for what it is.”